RSPB Scotland’s Species and Habitats Officer James Silvey encourages us to enjoy the arrival of spring in our local patch.
Don’t miss spring
How well do you know the area around where you live, otherwise known as your local patch? Do you know where the nearest wood is, nearest pond? Where’s the best patch of flowers for pollinators or best hedge for nesting birds? Then on a more detailed level, do you have a good spot for seeing the local heron or a patch of scrub where you normally hear the first chiffchaff of the year?
Covid-19 may have limited out movements but it hasn’t stopped us from exploring our local patch and it certainly hasn’t stopped spring. Like many of us, I thought I had a fairly decent knowledge of my local patch, I knew where to go for chiffchaffs in spring, and migrant butterflies in the autumn but I had no idea where our local pond was or what lived in the wood at the top of the hill that I passed every day on my way into work. With a small amount of outdoor time a day I have set myself the challenge of exploring every inch of my local patch.
I started last week with an OS map and aerial photographs looking for areas that I didn’t know existed. Day 1 was the local wood and an old quarry site at the top of the hill.
The area is well walked but as the wood changed into gorse scrub a small flock of linnets flew overhead and then a singing male yellow hammer announced himself from the top of a birch tree, not a bad result I thought and carried onto the quarry site. This area unfortunately sees a lot of anti-social behaviour, but the regular burning has created breaks in the gorse scrub amongst the grassland. The sun was shining so the scent of the gorse (think coconut scented suntan lotion) was thick in the air.
Figure 1 Male yellow hammer aka sunshine in bird form
I would have been happy with what I’d found up till then but walking around the corner the star of the show exploded from the grass. A pair of grey partridges shot out in front of me and flew down and round the hill giving me fantastic views before they dropped into the grass and disappeared.
In the whole time I’d been walking I had seen only two people and these partridges were clearly taking advantage of the newfound peace and quiet to forage close to the main path. I’d never seen the species locally, and nationally they have declined and are red listed, so this was a real treat.
Over the next few days I’ll be exploring more of my local patch and I’d highly recommend you do the same. Spring is now in full swing and nothing can stop it so, if you can, take a moment each day to go out and be a part of it.